You’re S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (Part 2)

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Hey all!  This is part 2 of the You’re S.P.E.C.I.A.L. series!  If you missed Part 1, click here to go check it out!

“I is for Intelligence, it means I’m really smart! I use my brain for lots of stuff, like science, math and art!”

Too many people stop trying to learn things after they leave school.  Heck, too many people don’t even try to learn anything while in school.  This is a shame, because when it comes to intelligence, we really are mostly on equal footing.  Yes, there’s some outliers in both directions when it comes to mental abilities, but more often than not, the smarter person is just the one who’s focused more on practicing the art of learning.  Here’s a few guidelines to boost your intelligence:

• Learn something new every day.  Learn a new concept, learn a new word, learn about a new event, something.  Just try to introduce at least one new article into your brain every day.  There’s a great Youtube channel for this, if you’re into video content.  If not, you can always just hop on Wikipedia, find a random article, and pick something out of it.  If you’re reading this article, you have access to basically all accumulated human knowledge in one form or another, you really have no excuse for not making use of it.
• Read 10 pages of a book, every day.  This one is powerful.  Ten pages is easy enough to be able to commit to (even if it’s just before bed every night,) but multiplied every single day and you’ll be doing 3650 pages a year.  That’s at least ten books.  If you really don’t have time to read, you can also get a membership to Audible and listen to ten minutes of an audiobook every day.  These don’t even have to be non-fiction books to make a difference in your life (although I recommend at least a few are.)  Fiction can expand your mind, even if you don’t necessarily learn new facts or figures from fiction books.  They can inspire you, and grow your brain.
• Pick a subject.  Devote an hour to it, every day.  This one’s a bit more of a commitment, but I’m willing to put money on the vast majority of people reading this article being able to carve an extra hour out of their day.  The benefits from this one are massive.  Within a year’s time, you’ll have put as many hours into learning that subject as your average PHD candidate puts into their doctorate.  That’s some strong stuff.

“A is for Agility, that’s how I get around! I move real fast and easy, and I never make a sound!”

Agility is great to have when moving through life.  It can help out in basically any sport, as well as help prevent injury in day to day life.  Being agile means you’re more ready and able to face basically any physical challenge you may be presented with.  Here’s some great ideas for boosting your own agility!

• Do the Sheik Agility workout.  Replace your burnouts in The Vault Dweller Workout with the Sheik Agility Workout every other workout.  You’ll recruit your fast-twitch muscle fibers, and train your body to move in a variety of directions quickly and easily.
• Practice yoga.  You can find lots of yoga progressions online to start, or you can grab an instructional DVD.  Of course, nothing replaces actual instruction, so if you have a yoga studio near you, I’d highly recommend enrolling in some classes.  Yoga helps with flexibility, mind-body connection, and balance.
• Warm up and cool down after every workout.  This one is incredibly simple, and if you’re not already doing it, you definitely should be.  Following my simple Warm Up program before every workout, and my Cool Down program after every workout will help prevent injury, increase range of motion, and enhance your flexibility.  All of these things will help you move in a quick and well-coordinated manner when you need to!

“L is for Luck, and it’s simple, you see! It means that good things always happen to me!”

Luck, in a way, is uncontrollable.  By definition, luck is the random chance that something good happens to you.  However, there’s two things that also hold true, in regards to luck:

• Luck favors the prepared.  There’s no way of knowing when an opportunity will present itself to you out of the blue.  However, you should work on being prepared to take advantage of it when it does!  How do you do this?  By keeping yourself in good physical, mental, and financial shape!  By making sure each facet of your life is in good condition when opportunity comes knocking, you’ll greatly increase your ability to react to that opportunity quickly and decisively.
• Fortune favors the bold.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  There’s a reason live boldly is part of my personal credo.  If you don’t take advantage of opportunities when you see them, if you let fear and doubt hold you back, then you’ll never be truly “lucky.”  Now, this is, of course, assuming that you’ve already taken the previous recommendation to heart.  You probably shouldn’t jump ship from your reliably job when an outrageous but risky opportunity comes your way if you’re $100,000 in debt with no savings safety net.  However, if you have gotten the rest of your life in hand (become prepared,) then when opportunity comes knocking, you’ll have the means to seize it.

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

-Thomas Jefferson

Whew!  Not one but TWO posts, but then again we had a lot of ground to cover!  Now, I know that in Fallout you have to pick and choose which attributes you focus on due to limited skill points.  That is not so, in real life!  You have the opportunity to start building on every single one of these attributes today.  In fact, some of them are quite complimentary!

To that end, I suggest picking one tip from each attribute, and working it into your daily life, starting now.  You can level up your skills and abilities every day!  In fact, I recommend starting a journal to track your progress and work on your techniques!  You’ll be amazed how much you can advance yourself with just a little bit of effort every day!

I’ll see you again on Monday with How to Survive a Nuclear Apocalypse.  As always, remember to live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome!

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace